2024: It’s All About Me

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
    Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. Psalm 139:14

You may be thinking my title is awfully self-centered. To think an entire year is all about me sounds so contrary to the message of the Bible. However, that’s my focus for 2024.

Before you shut me out and quit reading, give me a few minutes to explain.

I told you last week that I had given my notice at my job, choosing to step away from a large, comfortable salary to take a step of faith. I would be lying if I told you I had no fear because quite honestly, I’m terrified! I’ve come to realize that money is security for me. Maybe it’s because of the years of struggle as a single mom. Maybe it’s because I’m self-sufficient and independent. Maybe it’s just the way God wired me. No matter what, I know God must be my security and not a paycheck.

As I’ve prayed through my future over the last few months, I’ve come to understand who I am a little more. I’ve looked back over the last decade of my life and begun to see the pattern of downward spiral–mentally, physically, emotionally. It began with a five-day work week, especially a five-day in-office work day. I was happy and felt like I had time for myself and my family when I worked a three-day work week, but when I transitioned to a traditional work week is when I began to lose myself.

Guess what? God did not create me for a five-day work week.

Some people may thrive in that environment; I simply die inside.

And that’s totally ok because that’s the way God created me.

If God created me to not function in a five-day work week, then why am I trying to fit myself into the American mold? Because that’s what culture tells us we are supposed to do. And, I’ll be honest. Over the years as a single mom, I chose my jobs so I could still be a mom–present in the evenings and weekends and holidays. My five-day work week served a purpose, but I’m now in a new season of life. I don’t need to arrange my life around my kids’ activities any longer. I can arrange my life around who God created me to be.

And that’s what I am doing. I have opted to go back to the hospital to a part-time position–no set hours or 40 hour work-weeks. Sure, I am giving up a lot of benefits and security. But I am trusting God to be my security.

But, even more than the part-time status, I am looking forward to building a coaching business. I have spent over a decade blogging and praying, but the fact is that when I get to the end of a work day, the last thing I have energy for is building a business. I have prayed. I have begged God. But I have been unable to pour the energy into doing the hard work. My prayer is that with a part-time position, I will have enough energy and creativity to work toward the goal of coaching.

In addition, God has spoken Matthew 6:33 to me repeatedly. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.The truth is that my job has gotten my best for many years; God (and everyone else) gets the left-overs. I’m super excited to see what happens when I have the freedom and focus to seek Him above all else.

Now, back to 2024 being the year of Me. As I said, I had to do a lot of soul-searching in the last few months to realize that the 5-day, in-office work day was where my negative spiral began. I realize God created us all differently. My current boss is a godly woman who thrives on staying busy. She loves the commute because it’s where she connects with God. But that’s not who God created me to be. Driving sucks the life out of me, and I connect with God when I am out walking and moving. Two different people with one creative God.

And that’s where I am. You see, I want to spend 2024 diving deeply into who God created me to be, understanding my strengths and weaknesses and why I respond the way I do. I want to understand why I tend to support some people while I dominate others. I want to understand what tendencies I have–good and bad–and what triggers those tendencies. I want to take a really hard look at those areas that would make me more like Him and work to be transformed by the renewing of my mind.

I have been introduced to some amazing tools that will help me understand myself better and then lead others to understand themselves better. They have actually been developed by my friend, Jeremie Kubicek, co-founder of GiANT Worldwide. I have come to really see the value in the tools he has created and how it gives you a framework for understanding yourself–and others! It gives you the ability to understand why certain decisions create such chaos and how you can regain peace.

Best of all, Jeremie is an amazing Christian man. Even though his tools are not outright Christian, they are all based on Biblical principles. He has helped many people transform their lives, and I am excited to step in and learn the tools and take them to others.

So 2024 is all about me. Me learning who God created me to be. Me learning what it’s like to be on the other side of me. Me learning what it is to again completely trust God. Me taking a journey into myself so I can help others take the same journey.

Here’s to 2024!